Let it Ride Casino Game Rules

Let It Ride is a slower paced version of five-card stud played in casinos. The outcome of each round of play depends on each player’s hand, and the hand of the player-dealer. Each player gets three cards and pairs them with two community cards turned face up on the table. Players place three initial bets on each hand then pull or let them ride depending on their cards.

Table Layout
Up to seven players, plus the player-dealer can play Let It Ride. Each play area is defined as a wedge of the table opposing the player-dealer. In each play area, the player will see the Pay Table showing the payout for each of the winning card hands. Before each player are three spots or circles on which three bets are placed. Each circle features a “$”, “1”, or “2”. Online games show the player’s cards and the community cards in a single row. However, the dealers always place the community cards in the center of the table in casino games so all players at the table will see them.

Number of Players
A minimum of two players – one may be the player-dealer – and a maximum of eight players.

Card Deck Usage
Cards are usually dealt from an automatic card shuffler. Standard decks of 52-playing cards are used. Only one deck of used is used in each hand. However, there are two decks of cards used alternately with each hand in the game. While one deck is in play, the other deck is being shuffled, and vice versa. Both decks must have the same back design.

Card Ranks
There are only certain pairings of cards that win a hand. These pairings payout from a 1:1 odds all the way up to 1,000:1 odds. So, the game can be very rewarding for the lucky and skilled player. The following payout table shows both the winning hands and their odds.

Royal Flush 1,000:1

Straight Flush 200:1

Four of a Kind 50:1

Full House 11:1

Flush 8:1

Straight 5:1

Three of a Kind 3:1

Two Pair 2:1

Tens or Better 1:1

The card ranks follow standard poker rules. Three of a Kind is three cards of the same rank, such as three jacks. A Royal Flush is composed of sequential high ranking cards in the same suit. For instance, a Royal Flush can be 10 of hearts, jack of hearts, queen of hearts, king of hearts, and ace of hearts. There are four potential ways to get a Royal Flush, one for each suit of the deck.

Dealing Procedure
After each round of play, the player-dealer switches the active card deck with a freshly shuffled deck of cards. The player-dealer waits for the players to place their bets. Then, the player-dealer deals three cards to each player. The player-dealer deals himself three cards. Two of which are placed in the center of the table, and one is placed in the discard rack. The two center cards now become the community cards that finish the hands of the other players. All remaining cards in the deck are placed in the discard rack, without displaying them to the players.

How to Play
Playing each hand of Let It Ride is fairly straightforward. Each player places his bets before receiving the cards. The player examines his cards to determine if he thinks he has a good hand or not. If he likes the hand so far, he can keep his bets in place and tell the dealer to “Let It Ride.” If he doesn’t like the hand, he can “pull” or withdraw the bet with the highest odds payout. Once all players have decided how to handle their cards, the player-dealer turns over one community card.

The player again examines his cards and the one visible community card to determine if he now has a good hand. If the player likes his hand, he tells the dealer to “Let It Ride”, and leaves the remaining bets in place. If he doesn’t like his hand, he can pull the bet with the highest odds payout again. Once all of the players have decided how to handle their cards, the player-dealer turns over the second community card.

With all cards exposed the player-dealer checks to see if the player has a winning hand. If he does, the player-dealer pays out winnings based on the odds per card hand on the pay table. If he doesn’t have a winning hand, the player-dealer takes the player’s bets as losses. In order to play another round, the player needs to place more bets with his winnings or some more of his chips.